Time and the Gods Read online

  Produced by Joris Van Dael, Jerry Fairbanks, Suzanne L.Shell, Charles Franks and the Online DistributedProofreading Team

  [Transcriber's note: In the print book, the word Pegana is spelled with amacron (long vowel symbol) over the first "a". In this e-book, the macronhas been omitted.]

  TIME AND THE GODS

  LORD DUNSANY

  1905

  CONTENTS

  Preface

  _Part I:_

  Time and the Gods

  The Coming of the Sea

  A Legend of the Dawn

  The Vengeance of Men

  When the Gods Slept

  The King That Was Not

  The Cave of Kai

  The Sorrow of Search

  The Men of Yarnith

  For the Honour of the Gods

  Night and Morning

  Usury

  Mlideen

  The Secret of the Gods

  The South Wind

  In the Land of Time

  The Relenting of Sarnidac

  The Jest of the Gods

  The Dreams of the Prophet

  _Part II:_

  The Journey of the King

  PREFACE

  These tales are of the things that befell gods and men in Yarnith,Averon, and Zarkandhu, and in the other countries of my dreams.

  PART I.

  TIME AND THE GODS

  Once when the gods were young and only Their swarthy servant Time waswithout age, the gods lay sleeping by a broad river upon earth. Therein a valley that from all the earth the gods had set apart for Theirrepose the gods dreamed marble dreams. And with domes and pinnacles thedreams arose and stood up proudly between the river and the sky, allshimmering white to the morning. In the city's midst the gleamingmarble of a thousand steps climbed to the citadel where arose fourpinnacles beckoning to heaven, and midmost between the pinnacles therestood the dome, vast, as the gods had dreamed it. All around, terraceby terrace, there went marble lawns well guarded by onyx lions andcarved with effigies of all the gods striding amid the symbols of theworlds. With a sound like tinkling bells, far off in a land ofshepherds hidden by some hill, the waters of many fountains turnedagain home. Then the gods awoke and there stood Sardathrion. Not tocommon men have the gods given to walk Sardathrion's streets, and notto common eyes to see her fountains. Only to those to whom in lonelypasses in the night the gods have spoken, leaning through the stars, tothose that have heard the voices of the gods above the morning or seenTheir faces bending above the sea, only to those hath it been given tosee Sardathrion, to stand where her pinnacles gathered together in thenight fresh from the dreams of gods. For round the valley a greatdesert lies through which no common traveller may come, but those whomthe gods have chosen feel suddenly a great longing at heart, andcrossing the mountains that divide the desert from the world, set outacross it driven by the gods, till hidden in the desert's midst theyfind the valley at last and look with eyes upon Sardathrion.

  In the desert beyond the valley grow a myriad thorns, and all pointingtowards Sardathrion. So may many that the gods have loved come to themarble city, but none can return, for other cities are no fitting homefor men whose feet have touched Sardathrion's marble streets, whereeven the gods have not been ashamed to come in the guise of men withTheir cloaks wrapped about their faces. Therefore no city shall everhear the songs that are sung in the marble citadel by those in whoseears have rung the voices of the gods. No report shall ever come toother lands of the music of the fall of Sardathrion's fountains, whenthe waters which went heavenward return again into the lake where thegods cool Their brows sometimes in the guise of men. None may ever hearthe speech of the poets of that city, to whom the gods have spoken.

  It stands a city aloof. There hath been no rumour of it--I alone havedreamed of it, and I may not be sure that my dreams are true.

  * * * * *

  Above the Twilight the gods were seated in the after years, ruling theworlds. No longer now They walked at evening in the Marble City hearingthe fountains splash, or listening to the singing of the men theyloved, because it was in the after years and the work of the gods wasto be done.

  But often as they rested a moment from doing the work of the gods, fromhearing the prayers of men or sending here the Pestilence or thereMercy, They would speak awhile with one another of the olden yearssaying, "Rememberest thou not Sardathrion?" and another would answer"Ah! Sardathrion, and all Sardathrion's mist-draped marble lawnswhereon we walk not now."

  Then the gods turned to do the work of the gods, answering the prayersof men or smiting them, and ever They sent Their swarthy servant Timeto heal or overwhelm. And Time went forth into the worlds to obey thecommands of the gods, yet he cast furtive glances at his masters, andthe gods distrusted Time because he had known the worlds or ever thegods became.

  One day when furtive Time had gone into the worlds to nimbly smite somecity whereof the gods were weary, the gods above the twilight speakingto one another said:

  "Surely we are the lords of Time and gods of the worlds besides. Seehow our city Sardathrion lifts over other cities. Others arise andperish but Sardathrion standeth yet, the first and the last of cities.Rivers are lost in the sea and streams forsake the hills, but everSardathrion's fountains arise in our dream city. As was Sardathrionwhen the gods were young, so are her streets to-day as a sign that weare the gods."

  Suddenly the swart figure of Time stood up before the gods, with bothhands dripping with blood and a red sword dangling idly from hisfingers, and said:

  "Sardathrion is gone! I have overthrown it!"

  And the gods said:

  "Sardathrion? Sardathrion, the marble city? Thou, thou hast overthrownit? Thou, the slave of the gods?"

  And the oldest of the gods said:

  "Sardathrion, Sardathrion, and is Sardathrion gone?"

  And furtively Time looked him in the face and edged towards himfingering with his dripping fingers the hilt of his nimble sword.

  Then the gods feared with a new fear that he that had overthrown Theircity would one day slay the gods. And a new cry went wailing throughthe Twilight, the lament of the gods for Their dream city, crying:

  "Tears may not bring again Sardathrion.

  "But this the gods may do who have seen, and seen with unrelentingeyes, the sorrows of ten thousand worlds--thy gods may weep for thee.

  "Tears may not bring again Sardathrion.

  "Believe it not, Sardathrion, that ever thy gods sent this doom tothee; he that hath overthrown thee shall overthrow thy gods.

  "How oft when Night came suddenly on Morning playing in the fields ofTwilight did we watch thy pinnacles emerging from the darkness,Sardathrion, Sardathrion, dream city of the gods, and thine onyx lionslooming limb by limb from the dusk.

  "How often have we sent our child the Dawn to play with thy fountaintops; how often hath Evening, loveliest of our goddesses, strayed longupon thy balconies.

  "Let one fragment of thy marbles stand up above the dust for thine oldgods to caress, as a man when all else is lost treasures one lock ofthe hair of his beloved.

  "Sardathrion, the gods must kiss once more the place where thy streetswere once.

  "There were wonderful marbles in thy streets, Sardathrion."

  "Sardathrion, Sardathrion, the gods weep for thee."